FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Anya Tish
Anya Tish Gallery
4411 Montrose Blvd.
Houston, Tx 77006
713-5242299
PAUL BOOKER: Myriad
SIMEEN FARHAT: Masnavi
Anya Tish Gallery is pleased to announce two Houston inaugural solo exhibits by
Texas-based artists Paul Booker and Simeen Farhat, which independently deal
with the complexities of visual and textual language within themes of nature and
cultural identity.
Myriad features a series of intricate sculptures by Paul Booker that explore
underlying patterns found within nature. Booker transcribes these sequences into
loosely written text, which he slowly deconstructs by deleting recognizable words
resulting in a series of abstract forms that become the sculptures' blueprint. The
works incorporate hundreds of delicately pinned geometric forms that hang
effortlessly across the wall, referencing the Entomological process associated
with preserving insects. These assemblages breathe a sense of life into the
gallery, creating rhythmical currents and constellations embodied within nature's
choreography; flocks of birds, swarms of ants and schools of fish. The physicality
of the sculptures cast detailed shadows that ebb and flow across the gallery walls
transforming the gallery into an interactive environment that revolves as the
viewer moves around it.
Masnavi (small poem in Urdu) features a series of text-based sculptures by
Simeen Farhat, which explore the relationship between cultural heritage and
language. Calligraphic shapes carved out of wood are appropriated from the
deconstructed writings of poets of the Urdu language, notably Faiz Ahmed Faiz
and Mirza Ghalib, who embraced controversial themes of freedom and speech.
Tones of white, black and sepia play with the viewer’s perspective fading in and
out of the gallery walls, creating extraordinary mirages of form while the
interactive speech bubbles project a variety of elaborate shadows. The
assemblages create a linguistic and cultural hybrid between the sensibilities of
the visual and the verbal, as well as influences of the east and the west. The
intricate nature of the works creates an actively pulsating visual dialogue,
producing a transcendental experience that connects the visceral with the
rational.
Paul Booker lives and works in Dallas, Texas and is a professor of art at the
University of Texas. Booker describes himself as an abstract painter, who is
constantly fascinated with the subtle designs found within the everyday. He has
exhibited consecutively at The Museum of Art in Austin and The Museum of Art
in Dallas as well as galleries in New York and Texas.
Simeen Farhat is a Pakistani-born artist who currently lives and works in Dallas,
Texas, and teaches at the University of Texas. She frequently returns to her
native Pakistan, which fuels the themes of cultural identity in her work. She has
been included in the 2009 Texas Biennial and recently had a solo exhibit at
the McKinney Avenue Contemporary and the Haggerty Gallery in Dallas and has
upcoming solo shows in Philadelphia and in Karachi, Pakistan.
The Artists will be present at the Opening Reception Friday, January 8, 6-9
PM.
Exhibition on view through February 6, 2010.